The embodiments herein consists of a handheld, low cost system, which can capture ambient signals, convert to power level, and GeoMap Ambient Radio Frequency (RF) Energy and any transduceable physical phenomena using appropriate transducers. This system can be directed towards collecting data and GeoMapping it through the process of crowdsourcing.
Instrumentation for a single user to collect RF data exists such as in U.S. Pat. No. 2011/011,5605 to Dimig and Salah (2011). This system focuses on an RF antenna positioned in a vehicle to receive transmitted signals, which is then used to power a key fob. The excess electrical energy is stored. While this can harvest the RF energy present, it is unable to determine how much actually exists in a given area.
Both U.S. Pat. No. 8,552,597 B2 to Song and Sastry (2007) and U.S. Pat. No. 2009/0152,954 A1 to Le, Flez, and Mayaram (2009) are specialized circuit designs that are used to harvest RF energy. These circuits contain capacitors that are able to store collected RF energy for later use. Song and Sastry claim “harvesting radio frequency energy using a crystal receiver” and Le, Flez, and Mayaram claim using a “voltage double rectifier” which are both examples of extra features to an RF harvest circuit. With both of these, the circuits are primarily to be integrated in applications for RF systems such as a wireless sensor network. Therefore, they should not be considered standalone systems that can be used by the general public, but rather improvements to circuit designs in already existing applications.
In conclusion, of what I am aware, there is no formerly developed system that is able to report the Ambient RF Energy level by displaying the data through an online GeoMap that can be accessed by the general public.